Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Read this book as my "previous suggestion that didn't make the list", which was a book that had an elderly main character.

It is about an 82-year-old woman named Maud who has some form of dementia. Maud firmly believes that her best friend Elizabeth has gone missing but due to her declining memory, no one else believes her. She sets out to try and find out what happened to her friend, which also draws up memories of her sister who also disappeared many years before.

I thought it was a great book, and I was very interested in Maud's thought processes as she went through her search for her friend. I loved reading about how her mind jumped from one topic to the next, and especially how seemingly random things that she said or did were actually linked to memories from the past. As someone with a family member who has Alzheimer's and shows very similar memory problems as Maud does in the book, I found it really interesting. Unfortunately, I found the ending a bit predictable and the story got a bit muddled partway through.

I just finished Elizabeth Is Missing.. I still can't wrap my head around it. I became dizzy reading it. I could grasp the back and forth just fine, but Maud's caregivers made me crazy.. How could they let her wander so much. Truly disturbing that this happens to people. (dementia). And the end... hmm

I will start reading this tonight. It sounds very interesting, but I guess I won't know until I actual read it.

I'm about finished with this book. I too can't believe her caregivers let her wonder as much as they do. That and the way the one keeps putting horror stories into poor Maud's head. That is just cruel.

I read this book for 41. A book with an unreliable narrator.
I thought it was well written and liked the way you could follow her thoughts going back and forth.

I've just finished this. I think I can sum up my thoughts about it by saying the idea was better than the execution. I really liked the concept of telling the story from Maud's perspective and {possible spoiler} (view spoiler)[the author did a good job of conveying the amount of confusion and distress she experienced (hide spoiler)] but ultimately I felt the conclusion was a bit disappointing.

I read this for the first topic of 2019: a book that was nominated for, or won, an award. I found it compelling reading and was particularly impressed by the development of Maud's POV.